Within the first two minutes of the second half, the game appeared to be taking the shape of so many other blowout wins for the Arts & Sciences girls’ basketball team this season. Instead, the Lady Patriots had to show more grit than they had against any previous Class A opponent, holding off a late Whitwell rally to claim a 61-51 victory in the Region 3-A semifinals at CSAS.
The Lady Patriots had beaten their previous 18 Class A foes by an average of 43 points and led by 20 early in the third quarter. However, Whitwell closed to within nine in the fourth quarter before CSAS answered with a 9-2 run to retake command.
Arts & Sciences now will face Marion County, which defeated Silverdale Baptist 45-33 in Monday’s other region semifinal. The Lady Patriots are in the region title game for the third straight season, while Marion is making its first appearance in more than 25 years. The championship game is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at CSAS.
“We haven’t really been tested lately the way we were tonight,” CSAS coach Clay Martin said. “I knew Whitwell would fight back, and about halfway through the fourth I called time out and spoke to our seniors. I told them it was up to them. If they were ready to be done, then we would lose. If they weren’t, we would pull away.”
That timeout came with just under three minutes remaining, and the three seniors — Alexis Anderson, Chariah Gordon and Kayla Kelly — each scored a basket during a 39-second span in which the Lady Patriots’ pressure defense resulted in three turnovers and an 8-0 run.
Gordon led her team with 20 points, while Kelly added 16 and Anderson scored 15. Whtiwell’s Macy Kilgore led all scorers with 29, including five 3-pointers.
Marion limited Silverdale to seven first-half points and was never threatened. Junior Keta Robinette had a game-high 13 points as well as nine rebounds for the Lady Warriors, while Paige Durham finished with eight points and 11 rebounds. Robinette became the program’s career scoring leader, now with 1,507 points.
“It’s always big for us to jump out on somebody early because we have a tendency to tense up if the game is close in the first half,” Marion coach Randy Ellis said. “Paige really carried us early on offense, and even thought Keta’s scoring was a little off, she led us in a lot of other ways. She just has a way of settling us down at key moments.”